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In two ACC issues I have followed closely and actively participated in, “smart” meters and the CenturyLink “facility relocation” add-on fee, Burns sided with corporate, not ratepayers, despite huge public outcries on both issues. He voted in favor of the undeserved CenturyLink fee, and he voted to extort a fee from ratepayers not wanting a “smart” meter.

Indeed, on May 1st, 2013 Burns wrote an opinion piece in the Sedona Red Rock News parroting the APS “smart” meter line and valuing money over health and privacy. Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote him in reply back then:

Amazingly, you reveal yourself to be more concerned about APS’s bottom line than with people’s health and privacy. In your article you mention a meeting you attended in Sedona in which people expressed health and privacy concerns regarding “smart” meters. Yet your response is that “… perhaps an important fact is getting lost in the discussion – namely, that the digital meters represent a significant cost savings to the utility, a savings, that, in turn, gets passed on to its customers.”

“Significant cost savings”? Do tell us exactly how much ratepayers will save per month? Substantiate your claim. Show us some numbers based on real life, not APS propaganda. If the cost savings are “significant” as you claim, then it should be easy for you to tell us specifically.
(Entire letter is here: http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000144752.pdf )

Several times since I wrote that in 2013 I challenged Burns to show everyone the savings he said would be “passed on” to customers. Of course I never heard from him because there are no savings and never will be. The entire “smart” grid is huge boondoggle. Higher rates are what gets “passed on” wherever it’s installed, and Arizona is no exception now that APS is asking for an 8% rate hike in their pending rate case.

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